Bureaucratic System is in the World - Essay Example

Bureaucracy, Teamwork, and Gender Equality in Ice Age 3 April 8, An organisation’s structure, including its power dimensions, affects how its members think about and respond to leadership and management, as well as its workplace interpersonal relationships (Andreescu and Vito, 2010; Griffin and Moorhead, 2010: 407; Jackson and Carter, 2007: 41). Ice Age 3, directed by Saldanha and Thurmeier (2009), demonstrates a bureaucratic kind of governance in a place where size is power and rules are pervasive. Though the film’s characters are essentially animals, they represent the notion that the most powerful are those who have distinct advantages over others, whether it is intellect and physical strength for Manny or local knowledge and survival skills for Buck. The film depicts the strengths and weaknesses of a bureaucratic organisation structure that can be improved through teamwork and equal gender policies and practices that distribute power across members, which can decrease the authoritarian/patriarchal effects of top-down/gendered leadership that presents challenges in bureaucracies. Ice Age 3 is set in the historical ice age period, where dinosaurs are supposed to be extinct, and where Manny and Ellie’s desire to start a family creates a conflict between them and their friendship with Diego and Sid who have inner conflicts of their own. Manny and Ellie are excited to have their baby, although Manny is more protective than Ellie. Diego, on the contrary, thinks that he is losing his predator instincts because of domestic life with his friends. He decides to leave his group, which upsets Manny. Manny, however, upsets Sid, who wants to have a family too, but who Manny ridicules as incapable of having one. Sid proves that he can be a responsible parent by taking three dinosaur eggs that he mistakes as abandoned. When the real dinosaur mother takes back her eggs, she brings Sid with her because her children see the latter as their mother. Manny, Ellie, Crash and Eddie reunite with Diego and follow the dinosaur to save Sid. They find a dinosaur’s world underneath their ice age world, where they meet Buck, the weasel that saves them from dinosaurs and leads them to Lava Falls, where the dinosaur lives. The paradise world of dinosaurs, however, is not without a threat, due to Rudy, a large white carnivorous dinosaur. Ellie gives birth while under the attack of a ferocious Guanlong pack. After their adventurous journey, they save Sid and gets rid of Rudy. Buck decides to stay at the dinosaurs’ paradise when he hears Rudy’s groans, which means he survived the fall. Manny and his group start anew with their baby girl, Peaches, as snow falls. With the plot of survival and friendship, the film shows a bureaucratic organisation, including its strengths of systematic structure and clear division of labour. The systematic structure in Manny’s group is based on obedience that is secured through a formal, logical structure that provides guidelines for organisational behaviours (Grey, 2013: 22). The “due process” in the organisation follows a top-down approach, where Manny basically gives certain rules, such as no one but children can enter the nursery-park that he made for his baby (Grey, 2013: 22). The system enables the animals to know the boundaries of their actions, although the system breaks down because of Sid’s need for parenthood experiences. Another example of a bureaucratic system is in the dinosaur world. In this world, Buck becomes the leader who gives structure to their organisation through his own rules. Though Buck is not exactly a rational leader, he imposes rules which he thinks will increase the survival chances of his group, including rule number 1, always listen to Buck, and number 2, stay in the middle of the trail. These rules guide the behaviours of all members and provide structure to their organisational goal of saving Sid (Grey, 2013: 22). Bureaucracy creates a rational system through a clear set of rules and hierarchical leadership that exists in both Manny’s and Sid’s worlds. Apart from a rational approach to the organisational structure, a bureaucracy follows a clear division of labour, either implicitly or explicitly. An implicit division of labour is when Diego assumes the defence role for the team, while Crash and Eddie are in supporting defence roles. The division of labour is based on organisational goals that direct them to their “natural” roles and responsibilities (Griffin and Moorhead, 2010: 407). Another example of implicit division of labour is when Manny expects Ellie to focus on nurturing their baby, while he takes care of baby-proofing and preparing their environment. These implicit examples demonstrate the division of roles and responsibilities. An explicit division of labour is when Diego tells Manny how they should go about defending Ellie’s safety during the attack of the Guanlong dinosaurs. Diego says that Manny should be in charge of deflecting the dinosaurs, while the former goes to Ellie to both protect her and support her childbirth. At first, Manny is sceptical, but he realises the rationality of Diego’s recommendation. In this regard, Manny is the leader of the group, but Diego also knows how to lead during times of crisis because he can get people to do what is needed (Andreescu and Vito, 2010: 568). Manny is more of a manager who likes efficiency and order, while Diego exhibits leadership skill that supports Manny as the “president” of their organisation. These examples of division of labour highlight the importance of independent tasks that are coordinated to reach common organisational goals. The film also demonstrates the challenges with power, as it depicts the balance between bureaucracy and teamwork practices that flatten the organisation. One of the challenges of organisations is the conflict of values and interests. Diego, for instance, wants to be free and wild again, but this means forsaking his loyalty to their organisation. Manny does not easily accept Diego’s change of heart too, which worsens their situation. Another aspect of organisational challenges with power is its mobility. Townley (1993) talked about Foucault’s ideas of power and knowledge and how they are related to human resource management. Foucault argues that knowledge and power are interconnected, where power creates knowledge and knowledge stimulates power (qtd. in Townley, 1993: 521). In the case of the film, Buck gains power in the organisation because of his local knowledge and skills. He temporarily displaces the power of Manny, and he even earns the admiration of Diego who desires an independent, adventurous life. Buck continues the bureaucracy with his set of rules and organising order, which becomes problematic for Manny who is used to having power. In addition, Buck’s organisation has Tayloristic elements in sticking to the rules (Fusch, 1997: 1). He wants an efficient system that is based on his leadership. Later on, the film shows teamwork because, although Buck tells Manny and Diego to go and leave him to fight Rudy, Manny, Diego, and Sid decide to help Buck. They demonstrated teamwork in tying up Rudy, and even the mother dinosaur teams up with them when she pushes Rudy off the cliff. Teamwork is the result of the pooling of knowledge and skills that attained the organisational goal of eradicating Rudy (Baker et al., 2006: 1579). The initiative of the team members shows their awareness for their skills and knowledge and their commitment to the team. Teamwork flattens the decision-making process and enables team members to contribute more meaningfully to the strategic direction of the organisation. Apart from power, the film depicts the nature of gender inside organisations, and how gender stereotypes impact power structures too. Gender is an arena of power where gender stereotypes build and hamper interpersonal relations (Brewis and Linstead, 2000: 2). Manny exemplifies the male approach to leadership that eschews sensitivity and overemphasises protectiveness. He is not sensitive to the emotions of his friends, for Ellie is the one who tells him that Diego seems to have a problem. Gender becomes a “meta-structure” that affects power and legitimacy of management decisions (Porter, 2012: 301). Manny thinks that talking man-to-man does with Diego does not resolve interpersonal issues too. Instead of exploring Diego’s options with the organisation, Manny’s male ego tells him to just let go of Diego. Manny also says hurtful words that undermine Sid’s parenting ability. He does not show emotional intelligence, which is a sign of masculine beliefs and values on management. These examples show that the gendered meta-structure is not helpful to Manny as a leader. Aside from insensitivity, Manny is overprotective and tends to micromanage his members. Ellie chides him for “baby-proofing nature,” which is impossible because their environment is like any organisational place that is chaotic with uncertainties due to individual differences and environmental changes. Manny also micromanages the lives of Sid and Diego, by telling them what he thinks they are and what they can and cannot do. He does not give them the freedom to decide on their lives. Manny is typical of a male manager who thinks that his authority enables him to fully control the work environment and organisational outcomes. Despite gender stereotypes, the film shows gender equality in practice because of Ellie’s resistance to gender norms and values. Manny wants to be the “man” of their organisation, but Ellie does not blindly accept this power structure. An example is when he says that Ellie should not go into the hole that is the entrance to the dinosaur’s world, but Ellie goes in anyway. Her loyalty to Sid becomes an inspiration for her to break gender norms. She is a model of a woman who will not follow delimiting patriarchal rules and mindsets. Another example is Ellie’s opposition to Manny’s overprotectiveness. She reminds Manny that he cannot control everything. She helps Manny understand that, instead of trying to control nature, he should also learn how to trust his friends and their support for him. Manny learns to delegate tasks then, such as when he allows Diego to take care of Ellie when she is about to give birth. Gender empowerment flattens the social structure of the organisation by stressing the equality of all, not just genders. Through this task, I learned that organisations have a complex nature where different forms can co-exist to attain organisational goals. Even a bureaucracy can adapt teamwork elements to become more effective. The key is letting employees become leaders as the need arises. Moreover, managers should also learn to delegate tasks and to rely on their members’ distinct knowledge and skills. Power must not be concentrated in one individual, but shared across the organisation, especially among those who have the right knowledge, skills and attitude to make the right decisions. Managers must then know the individual knowledge, skills and attitudes of members to inspire them to work as a team. I also learned the importance of teamwork and gender equality in flattening traditional organisational structures. Teamwork enables the organisation to become a learning organisation because of the open sharing and implementation of knowledge. Gender equality also flattens the structure because it empowers men and women to break binary gender stereotypes. Thus, Ice Age 3 tackles structure, power, and gender by depicting the nature of a chaotic and uncertain environment that can be managed through the advantages of system and clear labour division of bureaucracy and the strengths of coordination and unity of teamwork and gender-equality organisations. Bibliography Andreescu, V. and Vito, G.F. 2010. An exploratory study on ideal leadership behaviour: the opinions of American police managers. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 12(4), pp.567-583. Baker, D.P., Day, R. and Salas, E. 2006. Teamwork as an essential component of high-reliability organizations. Health Services Research, 41(4), pp.1576-1598. Brewis, J. and Linstead, S. 2000. Sex, work and sex work: Eroticizing organization. London: Routledge. Fusch, G.E. 1997. Organizational change from scientific management to the learning organization--implications for new work systems. ERIC. Grey, C. 2013. Bureaucracy and scientific management. In: A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about studying organizations. 3rd edn. London: Sage, pp. 19-40. Griffin, R. and Moorhead, G. 2010. Organizational behavior: managing people and organizations. 9th edn. Ohio: Southwestern. Ice age 3: Dawn of the dinosaurs. 2009. [Film]. C. Saldanha and M. Thurmeier. dir. USA: 20th Century Fox. Jackson, C. and Carter, P. 2007. Structure. In: Rethinking organisational behavior. England: Prentice Hall, pp. 41-63. Porter, F. 2012. Negotiating gender equality in development organizations: the role of agency in the institutionalization of new norms and practices. Progress in Development Studies, 12(4), pp.301-314. Townley, B. 1993. Foucault, power/knowledge, and its relevance for human resource management. Academy of Management Review, 18(3), pp.518–545. Read More